Institute left 'saddened and dismayed' by relegation decision

The Board of Institute Football Club says it is both "saddened and dismayed" at the NI Football League Board decision to impose automatic relegation in the current circumstances.
By Steven Crawford
Published 23rd Jun 2020, 18:11 BST
Updated 23rd Jun 2020, 18:14 BST
The club will now reserve any further comment until the deliberations of the independent evaluation panel are knownThe club will now reserve any further comment until the deliberations of the independent evaluation panel are known
The club will now reserve any further comment until the deliberations of the independent evaluation panel are known

On Tuesday morning NIFL issued a statement saying the 2019/20 season will be curtailed immediately and a mathematical formula will decide the final positions in the Danske Bank Premiership.

With 'Stute currently sitting at the bottom of the table it looks likely they will be relegated and a statement issued by the club said that they believe the principle of sporting integrity has been "severely compromised".

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"The Institute Board are both saddened and dismayed at the NIFL Board decision to impose automatic relegation in the current circumstances.

"The club has consistently argued for the Premiership Committee and the NIFL Board to comply with the principle of sporting integrity and we believe that that principle has been severely compromised.

"Our club position has also been to encourage the league to stay true to the concept of solidarity.

"Adherence to this principle means that the league should work collectively to avoid decisions that would impose unnecessary or disproportional consequences on any individual club.

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"For this reason, we supported the promotion of teams from lower divisions but opposed the enforced relegation of teams who statistically may have survived if the season had been played to a natural conclusion.

"Confusingly, all twelve Premiership clubs verbally agreed against enforced relegation but the NIFL Board have chosen to reject this opinion. Options were presented to expand and/or restructure the Premiership for the 2020/21 season and whilst there would have been some minor issues with these options we believe that they would still have represented a 'least harm' scenario.

"Institute Football Club would like to thank the many clubs who have contacted us and who agree with our stance."